The year is 1460. King Henry of Lancaster has defeated Richard of York. The heads of his enemies are displayed triumphantly atop the gates of the City of York. All is lost. The only hope for the Yorkists lies with Richard's three young sons, Edward, George and Richard.

Kate Lytton has grown up in a different world. Raised to worship the Goddess, Great Mother Auset, she believes in the natural power of the earth. However, this pagan religion is merely tolerated by the mainstream church.

When a chance meeting brings Kate and the young Richard together neither of them could possibly realise that their lives would forever be entwined.

Richard was to grow up to become King Richard III, possibly the most infamous and reviled of the Kings of England. However, histories are written by the victors. Who's to say that the King we all learn about at school was quite as black as he was painted?

August is a student of Medieval history. Watching the classic Laurence Olivier rendition of Richard III one night she finds herself entranced by the villainous charm of the King. Late that night, whilst asleep, she experiences the first dream of the world of Richard of York.

Take a well-documented section of English history, change it and then mix in a healthy dose of character assassination, pagan religion and magic and you will get The Court of the Midnight King. The story is set in both the present day and the 15th Century. August, a history student, is becoming more and more enthralled by the story of Richard III. She starts to experience strange dreams and visions of the life of Richard from the point of view of Raphael, one of Richard's men-at-arms and Kate's lover. However, she soon becomes aware that the Richard she meets in her dreams is very different to the historic figure.

The characters in this novel are vivid and enchanting. The "new-look" Richard is a sympathetic, sensitive man who is torn between duty and love. Kate walks a fine line between her duty as a lady-in-waiting and her duty as a priestess of the Motherlodge, a group of pagans who worship the Goddess Auset. With August, the student, the reader can feel her increasing desperation as she strives to understand what she is experiencing.

As with many of Freda Warrington's novels, alternative religions butt heads with more mainstream beliefs. Typically the standard religions are portrayed as the bad-guys with the pagan religions being shown as the righteous course. I find this quite refreshing and it is one of the reasons that her books appeal to me.

I have been reading books by Freda Warrington for nearly twenty years since first discovering the Blackbird trilogy (well, it was a trilogy when I started to read it) in my university bookshop and I have never been disappointed. She approaches her topics with a unique style. A Taste of Blood Wine is a vampire novel without traditional fangs. Dark Cathedral considers the darker side of born-again-Christian cults and now The Court of the Midnight King gives us a new side to the story of the twisted King Richard III.

History-purists will very probably hate this book as it does re-write accepted history. In my opinion however (and yes, I do accept that I am more than a tad biased) I think this is very possibly one of the best books I have ever read.